Jack London recalled in Glen Ellen park

Vibrant Glen Ellen park rescued from budget cuts

Updated 4:48 pm, Friday, April 26, 2013

A path leads through remnants of the old winery walls at Jack London State Historic Park. The park features 26 miles of hiking and cycling trails, along with the 1.2-mile Wolf House circuit.

A path leads through remnants of the old winery walls at Jack London State Historic Park. The park features 26 miles of hiking and cycling trails, along with the 1.2-mile Wolf House circuit.

Photo: Jason Henry, Special To The Chronicle

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An old oak tree where Jack London was fabled to sit under outside the cottage at Jack London State Park near Glen Ellen, Calif., Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Triple Creek Horse Outfit offers guided horseback rides through the park six days a week.

An old oak tree where Jack London was fabled to sit under outside the cottage at Jack London State Park near Glen Ellen, Calif., Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Triple Creek Horse Outfit offers guided horseback

Remnants of the old winery walls at Jack London park, one of the original buildings.

Remnants of the old winery walls at Jack London park, one of the original buildings.

Photo: Jason Henry, Special To The Chronicle

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Remnants of the old winery walls at Jack London park, one of the original buildings.

Remnants of the old winery walls at Jack London park, one of the original buildings.

Photo: Jason Henry, Special To The Chronicle

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Erin Ellis of Triple Creek Horse Outfit closes up the barn before heading out for a ride through Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen.

Erin Ellis of Triple Creek Horse Outfit closes up the barn before heading out for a ride through Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen.

Photo: Jason Henry, Special To The Chronicle

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Feathers in the stable doors of Triple Creek Horse Outfit, which offers guided horseback tours at Jack London State Park near Glen Ellen.

Feathers in the stable doors of Triple Creek Horse Outfit, which offers guided horseback tours at Jack London State Park near Glen Ellen.

Photo: Jason Henry, Special To The Chronicle

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Dominick Bettinelli of Triple Creek Horse Outfit with horses Tug and Magnum in Jack London State Park near Glen Ellen, Calif., Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Triple Creek Horse Outfit offers guided horseback rides through the park six days a week.

Dominick Bettinelli, of Triple Creek Horse Outfit, with Tug, an American Quarter horse, in Jack London State Park near Glen Ellen, Calif., Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Triple Creek Horse Outfit offers guided horseback rides through the park six days a week.

My guide was clearly relishing telling the Jack London story, although it must have been for at least the hundredth time as he led yet another visitor toward the ruins of the Wolf House that burned in 1913.

"Some people said they saw Jack's wife, Charmian, skulking about with a kerosene can, late at night," volunteer host Paul Martin said. "But then ... " And he paused for dramatic effect on the winding path to the massive field stone foundation looming ahead.

I couldn't help it. "DUM-dum-dum," I intoned, in classic horror music style.

As it turned out, the grand house burned because of linseed oil-stained rags that self-combusted.

Yet in May 2011, the gracious mansion and its surrounding 1,400 acres on the eastern slope of Sonoma Mountain in Glen Ellen were facing another, very real sinister fate.

Budget cuts loomed. State officials first cut the park's operating hours, then included the woodland ranch among the mass state park closures scheduled for the following summer.

It spelled doom for the historic estate that was born when writer Jack London purchased the Sonoma Valley land in 1905, and which his widow Charmian called home until she died in 1955.

Averting disaster

However, in April 2012, at nearly the last minute, the property was adopted by the nonprofit Valley of the Moon Natural History Association, which continues to operate it.

The park's executive director, Tjiska Van Wyk, won't openly say that the forced change ended up being better for the preserve and its visitors. But as she sat at a picnic table in front of London's magnificent stone horse barns, discussing all the new programs under way, she praised the remarkable efforts of the community in coming together to not only save, but improve, a significant landmark.

The park now thrives with refreshed, carefully tended monuments, picnic areas and hiking paths. A horseback riding concession that was closed during budget cuts returned in February. And beginning Wednesday, the entire property will be open seven days a week.

The history association, which supports educational, volunteer and interpretive studies, has made the park more accessible, Van Wyk noted, with greater emphasis on community outreach, public events and the ability to host weddings and corporate functions for up to 1,000 guests.

From May through September, the third Thursday of every month will feature "Picnic 'til Sundown" gatherings from 5 to 9 p.m., including half-price admission of $5 per vehicle. Local musicians will perform, and food trucks may sell their fare.

From June 28 to Aug. 31, the popular Transcendence Theatre's "Broadway Under the Stars" concerts will return to the open-air winery ruins next to London's white clapboard cottage, featuring tribute performances to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter and more.

Many visitors choose self-guided tours to explore the 1860s cottage that London restored. It's where he wrote his novels, then died in 1916, surrounded by Remington Noiseless typewriters and a clothespin line tacked with notes.

Just a short climb from the backyard is the "Pig Palace," a circular porcine resort of stone and concrete that London designed around a two-story tower that enabled him to efficiently feed and care for his prized Red Duroc Jersey hogs.

It's an easy walk across the property, past the barns for London's beloved Shire horses where he experimented with an innovative pulley-operated manure removal and composting system, over to the House of Happy Walls that Charmian London completed in 1926 in memory of her husband. The couple's graves rest behind a moss-laced picket fence on a hill above Wolf House.

But as I learned through my tours with Martin and another volunteer docent, Susan Nurember, the London legend truly comes alive when narrated by historians who can add color such as the gossip that swirled about London's death at the age of 40 - no, it wasn't from heavy drinking, or suicide, but believed to be uraemia, or kidney failure from self-medicating with mercury after contracting a common infectious disease called yaws while he visited the South Pacific.

Visitors can also trek the 26 miles of hiking and cycling trails in the park's backcountry. Leashed dogs are welcome on various trails, including the 1.2-mile Wolf House circuit.

Riding horses

Still, one of the most breathtaking ways to experience what London called Beauty Ranch is by horseback. Erin Ellis and Dominic Bettinelli operate Triple Creek Horse Outfit, leading guided rides through the park as they had done since 2003, until they were evicted during the budget crisis of 2011.

In February, they returned "home," as Ellis said, with their meticulously groomed steeds ready for adventures lasting from one to 2 1/2 hours, including lunch.

Ellis, a Sonoma County native, grew up riding the trails, and as she guided me on my horse Tug (he has appeared in movies, she said proudly), she explained how the land developed from open space to some of the America's first terraced crop fields to vineyards, and how wildlife like deer and bobcats still roam its protected mountains.

Cliff-side pathways

We rode through oak-studded meadows and towering, tight-knit groves of redwoods, across bridges over babbling creeks, and toward a 2,300-foot summit where Tug nimbly picked his way along skinny, cliff-side pathways.

Equestrians are welcome to trailer in their own horses, though with Ellis as a guide, I discovered such delicious extras as a "secret" path leading to the Grandmother Tree, estimated to be up to 2,000 years old with a 14-foot diameter trunk, and learned how a mountaintop apple orchard originally was the site of the California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble-Minded Children.

The celebration of Jack London's vision continues under Valley of the Moon Natural History Association's stewardship, Van Wyk explained later that afternoon as we finished a picnic under the shade trees next to the barns.

Ongoing work to restore sections of the property that have been closed for many years is paying off, she said. On June 2, several miles of new trails will open for public enjoyment.

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